An Intriguing Problem

As I tucked the photos the 3rd graders at Clinton-Massie selected for the box into a photo album I gradually became more and more perplexed.

The photo's the students had chosen for the box were not the photos I would have selected if I were in their position.

The absence of several photos in particular really began to make me wonder. The photo of a boy's fort in the woods, the picture of a girl standing next to her baby pony, the photo of a school bus, the image of a girl eating ice cream, and others were all photos I had been excited to send to Nepal, but were not among those chosen by the students at Clinton-Massie.

Why? Were my adult ideas about what made a photo good different from those of a 9 year old? Had I not explained our goals for this portion of the project adequately? Had they been reluctant to part with the photos they liked most?

The photo selection and discussion process looked something like this: Using powerpoint I showed the class 3 photos taken by their peers (photos I was particularly impressed by) and simply asked the kids what they saw. As I had hoped those children that had not taken the photo saw things that the photographer had not intended to be the focus of the photo or misinterpreted some of the features in the photo. Young girls were mistaken for sisters rather than cousins, features of the background were called to photographers attention as interesting topics for discussion, a photo of a toy gun was discussed. This segued comfortably into a brief discussion about the types of questions we should be asking ourselves as we look at our photos: What do we see? What might others see? How might they interpret it? How do I interpret it? Why do I interpret it the way I do?

With that each child was given there photos, a CD containing electronic copies of all their photos, a small plastic bag, and 4 index cards with instructions to put the photos they want in the box in the plastic bag, and to write 4 captions on the index cards for any 4 photos they wished. They broke out into groups to share and discuss their photos and Mrs. Harris, Bhupa, Jamie, and I moved from group to group. Children were told that those photos they didn't put in the box they could keep.

I had with me a list of photos I was excited to learn more about. I approached those students and talked with them a bit about what the photo meant to them, and showed my enthusiasm for what they were communicating through the image.

Not a single photo discussed as a group or a photo I showed interest in made its way into a plastic bag. Very interesting! Had my interest in a particular photo made the child reluctant to part with it? Did they not fully understand that they had copies of these photos on the CD?

I had initially planned to print duplicates of each child's photos, but for financial reasons opted for the CD instead. Perhaps duplicates would have been worth the extra money.